ScienceDaily: Strange Science News

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• These tiny liquid robots never run out of juice as long as they have food
• Devising new meat alternatives with 3D printing — and cocoa butter
• Newly discovered fish songs demonstrate reef restoration success
• Fleshing out the bones of Quetzalcoatlus, Earth's largest flier ever
• Miniature llama antibodies could help fight SARS-CoV-2 variants
• Stem cell study paves way for manufacturing cultured meat
• Researchers develop an antibody-drug delivery system
• CRISPRing the microbiome is just around the corner
• Evidence emerges for dark-matter free galaxies
• Researchers crack the synthetic code of rare molecules sought after in drug development
• Male spiders are attracted by a female like planets orbiting a star
• A chewing gum that could reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission
• COVID-19 mobile robot could detect and tackle social distancing breaches

These tiny liquid robots never run out of juice as long as they have food Posted: 08 Dec 2021 08:02 AM PST Scientists at Berkeley Lab and the University of Massachusetts Amherst have demonstrated the first self-powered, aqueous robot that runs continuously without electricity. The technology has potential as an automated chemical synthesis or drug delivery system for pharmaceuticals.

Devising new meat alternatives with 3D printing — and cocoa butter Posted: 08 Dec 2021 06:01 AM PST No longer just a dream of vegetarians and vegans, fake meat is becoming more widely available in grocery stores and restaurants. And more options are almost certainly on the way. One team has now developed a new combination of plant-based ingredients tailored for 3D printing meat alternatives. Their most successful recipes required an odd-sounding addition: cocoa butter, derived from cocoa beans of chocolate fame.

Newly discovered fish songs demonstrate reef restoration success Posted: 08 Dec 2021 06:01 AM PST Whoops, croaks, growls, raspberries and foghorns are among the sounds that demonstrate the success of a coral reef restoration project.

Fleshing out the bones of Quetzalcoatlus, Earth's largest flier ever Posted: 08 Dec 2021 06:00 AM PST Though discovered more than 45 years ago, fossils of Earth's largest flying animal, Quetzalcoatlus, were never thoroughly analyzed. Now, a scientific team provides the most complete picture yet of this dinosaur relative, its environment and behavior. The pterosaur, with a 40-foot wingspan, walked with a unique gait, but otherwise filled a niche much like herons today. The researchers dispel ideas that it ate carrion and walked like a vampire bat.

Miniature llama antibodies could help fight SARS-CoV-2 variants Posted: 07 Dec 2021 07:20 AM PST Llamas make antibodies that are much smaller than their human counterparts, yet still potent. Scientists hope that future drugs based on these molecules could provide new weapons against SARS-CoV-2.

Stem cell study paves way for manufacturing cultured meat Posted: 07 Dec 2021 06:24 AM PST Scientists have for the first time obtained stem cells from livestock that grow under chemically defined conditions, paving the way for manufacturing cell cultured meat and breeding enhanced livestock.

Researchers develop an antibody-drug delivery system Posted: 07 Dec 2021 06:24 AM PST Researchers have developed the first metal-organic framework (MOFs) antibody-drug delivery system that has the potential to fast-track potent new therapies for cancer, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases.

CRISPRing the microbiome is just around the corner Posted: 06 Dec 2021 07:00 PM PST CRISPR is widely used to target specific cell types, but only one at a time. Researchers have now developed methods to edit genes in multiple organisms within a diverse community of microbes simultaneously, a first step toward editing microbiomes such as those in the gut or on plants. One method assesses which microbes are editable; a second adds genes with a barcode that allows scientists to insert, track and assess insertion efficiency and specificity.

Evidence emerges for dark-matter free galaxies Posted: 06 Dec 2021 08:31 AM PST Astronomers have found no trace of dark matter in the galaxy AGC 114905, despite taking detailed measurements over a course of forty hours with state-of-the-art telescopes.

Researchers crack the synthetic code of rare molecules sought after in drug development Posted: 06 Dec 2021 08:30 AM PST A research team has succeeded in producing two molecules that are otherwise only formed by microorganisms from extremely contaminated wastewater in an abandoned mine in South Korea. The method, which took four years to develop, could pave the way for new types of drugs.

Male spiders are attracted by a female like planets orbiting a star Posted: 06 Dec 2021 08:30 AM PST The tiny male golden orb-weaving spider faces a considerable challenge when searching for a mate. He is a fraction of the size of the massive female, but must carefully enter her web and approach her without being noticed, because the cannibalistic female will kill and eat him if he makes one wrong move on her web. Add to this gamble the competition he faces from other males also on the delicate arena of the web, and you have a complex optimization problem that even human analysts would find daunting. Yet these little spiders barely have what we would recognize as a brain. How then do they manage?

A chewing gum that could reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission Posted: 03 Dec 2021 12:14 PM PST In experiments using saliva samples from COVID-19 patients, the gum, which contains the ACE2 protein, neutralized the virus, according to scientists.

COVID-19 mobile robot could detect and tackle social distancing breaches Posted: 01 Dec 2021 11:53 AM PST A new strategy to reduce the spread of COVID-19 employs a mobile robot that detects people in crowds who are not observing social-distancing rules, navigates to them, and encourages them to move apart.

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